


Dear Little One

by SunshineAndRainbows



Series: Please Explain [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Allura pov, Gen, Humans Are Weird, aliens are weird, but shiro's still around just because, but with a bit of a twist, dads of marmora, it's more about alien cultural differences than the paladins raising a baby, post season two, pretty short overall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-22 17:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11384691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineAndRainbows/pseuds/SunshineAndRainbows
Summary: The paladins hadn't been expecting to find the babyAllura hadn't been expecting their reaction to it





	1. Cuteness Overload

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm not actually sure if Zarkon is dead-dead or just mostly-dead. But team Voltron definitely think he's done been corpse’d but good.  
> Schrodinger's Shiro: is he dead? Alive? Considering the exact moment when canon cut off, I'm not really sure how group dynamics are gonna shift with him gone, so imma write like he's here until I have a better idea of what to do when he's not.

     When the paladins told Allura that the Galra of the base they were attacking had fled at the sight of them, she had been relieved. Of course, after defeating Zarkon, a simple backwater military base would have proved no challenge for them, but still, it was only to their benefit that a fight was avoided. It certainly gave Pidge plenty of time to hack their mainframes for any information—a fact that Pidge had crowed about gleefully. With Zarkon gone, they could dedicate their time to dissolving the empire and freeing the slaves he had made—including the green paladin's family.

     So yes, when the paladins told her that the base was abandoned, she felt relieved.

     When they returned to the castle, however, she felt confused.

     By all means, the mission had gone flawlessly, but when the paladins entered the control room they seemed… tense. Maybe even angry.

     Allura felt her heart sink in sympathy for Pidge, "Did you… not find what you were looking for?" Or worse: had she found information on her family, but learned that... something terrible had happened? Pidge had once been confident telling Allura that she was going to get her family back. Could it be—?

     "No, no, nothing like that." Pidge waved away her doubts, but still looked… troubled. "That place was a legit treasure trove of information, plus having unlimited download time? I was able to get it all. It'll probably take me a while to sort through all of it, but trust me, I found plenty. It's just…" she broke off, waving to Hunk.

     "Oh my." Coran gasped.

     Allura remembered that Hunk had found… something in the base. He’d sounded anxious, but hadn't said what it was over the coms, and the others' reactions when they saw whatever-it-was were hard to decipher.

     Now, however, now she knew what he had found.

     Hunk was holding a fluffy infant Galra in one arm. It was obviously less than a year old, judging by the markings on its face, and utterly tiny; Hunk could hold it in one hand with no trouble. Allura remembered seeing Galra children in her own childhood, and they had always been quite small.

     Allura wasn't sure what to make of the paladins reactions to the infant.

     Hunk was cooing over it, possibly trying to soothe it, though the baby already seemed relaxed; it was staring back at Hunk or around the room with bright eyes, occasionally making chirping sounds that weren't quite close enough to proper words to be picked up by the translators. Allura decided she trusted the yellow paladin's instincts—his interactions might have been all that was keeping the infant calm.

     Pidge was acting ambivalent and aloof, but as Allura watched she shot several covert looks to the baby. At one point it made eye contact and Pidge shyly waved. It stared back at her, wide-eyed and carefully mimicked her waving. Pidge's breath caught in her throat loud enough that Allura was sure she could have heard it from across the room. Pidge looked away, blinking hard. Then looked back.

     Shiro was staring intently. Allura couldn't decipher any emotion whatsoever. Just… intensity.

     Lance had his arms stiff at his sides, his fists clenched and his knuckles white, but he was watching the Galra baby with the softest smile Allura had seen yet.

     Keith however—Keith was the picture of controlled rage. His arms were crossed, his jaw was clenched. He was glaring through the control room's window at the base with a level of absolute hatred she had never imagined him capable of. Allura looked away.

     "I… see. You found a child."

     Their attention sharply turned to her and she could feel the burning behind their gazes.

     "Are you okay?" she tried.

     They looked confused.

     "You seem… angry," she tried again, "did something happen?"

     "What?" Lance sounded surprised, but he still had his fists clenched. "No we're not angry—"

     Keith snorted, "Speak for yourself."

     "Okay, so Keith's angry." Lance adjusted, "but the rest of us—"

     "How are you not angry? They abandoned—" his voice broke, "They abandoned their base and left a _baby_ behind. Who does that?!"

     The baby made a displeased chirruping noise at the raised voices, like it was building itself up to a tantrum. Allura winced in anticipation, but Hunk started shifting his weight, as though he was dancing. The baby quieted.

     Shiro put a hand on Keith's shoulder. Keith deflated somewhat and turned away sharply to glare at the floor. Hunk swayed over to Keith’s side, bumping their shoulders. When Keith looked up he held out the baby. Keith’s tense shoulders drooped as he easily took the offered baby, balancing it on his hip. He muttered something to the baby and started bouncing slightly, much to the baby’s delight. A small smile came to Keith’s face as it starting making a thrilled purring-chirping noise.

     "It does seem a bit odd for the Galra," Coran mused, "they're usually rather attached to their young. Quite literally sometimes; way back when Alteans and the Galra were still close allies, the Galra had a popular accessory. It was some sort of sash, made for holding children so the parent could keep both hands free. For a Galra to leave their child behind under any circumstance—it's unthinkable."

     "Wow. That is actually really awful and I think I'm starting to get a bit angry too"

     "But you weren't before?" Allura clarified.

     "Not really." Lance confirmed.

     "Then why were you so tense?"

     It was Hunk who responded: "It’s just… they're too cute. Just… look at this face Allura!" He gestured broadly at Keith, who was still bouncing. The baby let out a purring giggle and Hunk made an almost pained noise. "They look like a cross between a kitten and a baby—er, a human baby—and just. Baby Galra have spots? Like fawns? This baby is too cute. Allura how does anyone function knowing there are things this cute in the galaxy? How is Zarkon so evil when baby Galra are so cute?"

     Allura could admit the baby had its charm… in a way. She generally didn't care much for other species' offspring, as was only natural. In her honest opinion, the Galra child couldn't compare to an Altean baby. Sure it had _spots_ , and those were _alright_ , but it didn't have the wide, bright eyes, nor the adorable uncontrollable shape shifting she had seen when she met Coran's youngest son.

     "So… you are… reminded of your own species' offspring?"

     "Well. Not really, to be honest." Pidge replied, "Human babies are like heinous loaves of bread. I think it's really the kitten-slash-fawn thing that really pulls it together."

     "You. You _dislike_ your own offspring?" This was not the line of questioning Allura had meant to pursue, but it was certainly where her brain stuttered to a stop at.

     "Well, kids aren't for everyone." Shiro rationalized, "As long as everyone remembers that they're still people and should be treated kindly." he enunciated each word, staring directly at Pidge.

     "I'm not an asshole Shiro—"Pidge was cut off by Lance clearing his throat loudly, "Fuck off Lance. Fine. I'm kind of a jerk sometimes, but not to kids. Still, even you have to admit, kittens are way cuter than babies."

     No one refuted it.

     "I." Allura had trouble getting her reactions back under control. It was several ticks before she spoke again. "This is not what I was trying to ask. You seem tense. Why?"

     "Allura, they are too cute. TOO cute. I can't even handle it." Lance started babbling, gesturing at the Galra infant in Keith's arms, "I wanna punch something—they are so cute."

     "What?!"

     "Allura I have to protect them."

     "But you just said you want—" she couldn't even get the rest of the words out. She stared helplessly at the paladins. She finally settled on Shiro; he had been silent for a large portion of the conversation, and if they were just teasing her he would be the quickest to drop the act.

     Instead, Shiro nodded. "It’s kind of a… defensive instinct I think? I read once that it's like… you see something cute and defenseless, so you get the urge to defend it… whiiiich may involve the urge to punch something that might harm it."

     Allura could accept that; it even sounded like a good sort of trait for the defenders of the universe to have. She felt herself relaxing slightly, until Lance spoke again.

     "And that's why I'm going to punch a wall!" he announced with exuberance.

     "Same, but maybe save it for later." Hunk agreed, “Don’t want to upset the baby.”

     "Meh… punching isn't particularly my thing, but man do I know how you feel." Pidge nodded.

     "Punching walls doesn't help." Shiro, the eternal voice of reason, said. "I learned that when my sister had twins."

     Allura changed her mind. If Shiro had needed to learn that from _experience_ , then he was no longer the voice of reason. The responsibility would have to fall to her. She stared at the four paladins before turning to Keith. He hadn't said a word in quite some time. She felt a trickle of hope and dread crawl up her spine.

     Keith was staring exclusively at the child, gentle smile still on his face. She was pretty sure he knew she was watching him, but he was ignoring her.

     "Keith?"

     He finally turned to look at her. He took a slow, deep breath: "I would kill for this child."

     "Hoookaayyyyyyy dramatic, but yeah sure, I'm game." Lance agreed.

     "Because you find it cute."

     "Yes." Keith nods solemnly.

     "Seeing 'cute' things inspires humans to violence." she hears the incredulity in her own voice.

     Maybe it was for a reason that they did not find their own offspring cute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a few headcanons
> 
> 1: generally, a race will exclusively find their own offspring cute. Kind of like the 'no one thinks their baby is the ugly one' thing, but species-wide. Alteans might find human babies alright bc of the basic similarities, but the lack of eye markings and crazy shapeshifting would really be off-putting. That particular phenomenon where like 50% of people think babies are cute, but 100% awwwww at puppies and kittens? That's weird as hell.  
> 2: crazy/uncontrolled shapeshifting is a sign of youth/immaturity on Altea. Only infants and small children will start flashing colors like a cuttlefish. There's a lot of really fun games that involve wild shapeshifting. Once Alteans grow into some dignity they always miss playing them but never go back to it. It’s sad.  
> 3: Ok so you know how human babies, developmentally, would really benefit from another month or two in the womb but if they did then they would be too big to fit through mom's pelvis and the mother would die (so would the baby, most likely). Well. Altean shapeshifting. Altean gestation period is crazy long from our perspective even though development pace is decently analogous. When it's Time For Infant, the infant-carrier just shifts their hips to an appropriate size and wow no problem. Because of this, Altean babies are born much more independent than humans (not completely independent, but still), and infanthood is much shorter. Alteans would consider 100% of human babies to be premature.  
> 4: on the flip-side, Galra do not have shapeshifting, but do have skinny little tiny hips. Galra gestational periods are much, much shorter and babies develop a bit differently from humans; they form vital organs and such quickly, but don't do a whole lot of visible growing (and they form most of their non-vital stuff after birth). You might not even know a Galra was pregnant until they introduce you to their newborn. The babies come out as soon as possible and as consequence are tiny (like, fit into the palm of their parent's hand small) and incredibly dependent on their parents. Kind of like marsupials, but I don’t really hc Galra as having pouches.  
> 5: litters? yeah? nah? idk. it's an option, but i'm pretty neutral to it. if yes, then kiddo is the least favorite of the litter and thus left behind, if nah, then parentals were just kind of bad.  
> 6: once born, Galra babies grow at a lightning pace; they've got about 7 feet to go before they're adult-sized. They put on about a foot in their first year (during which it's pretty standard for their parents to hold them just about constantly. This baby is approximately 3-month-old-human-baby sized, which puts us at about a third to half of the way into that first Galran year. They've very recently finished forming and have probably only just opened their eyes. Even if they weren't abandoned intentionally, the fact that their parents left them alone enough to forget about them is fucked up to an extent that the Voltron crew doesn't even realize)  
> 7: on that topic, the fuckiness might be exclusive to this kids parents, or it might be because of a universal cultural shift, Thanks Zarkon. Being left alone during such a vulnerable age would likely leave most—if not all—modern Galra severely emotionally stunted, which might suit Zarkon just fine.  
> 8: Coran, Coran the Family Man! Haha git rekt @ my emotions


	2. In Which Everyone Becomes Space Dad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw funfacts, because I'm seeing a lot of people’s expectations and feeling bad bc I feel like I've been misleading about where this is gonna go... this story is gonna be super episodic in nature. like these first three chapters are episode 1: intro to infant. anything afterwards is gonna be its own episode, and, writing it, i wanted to feel like the episodes could (mostly) slot right into canon.
> 
> Plus a sort of Schrodinger's Everybody Lives AU. they're dead until they show up, they're alive until i mention that, nope, they're suuuppeerrr corpsed

     Once the baby had fallen asleep, they had tried to lay it in a crib—Allura’s own crib from when she had been a newborn. The baby, however, had taken exception to that.

     Every time they set it down it would begin screeching. The sound grated on Allura’s ears. Hunk had actually burst into tears hearing it, although he said it was because the baby ‘sounded like a heartbroken kitten. A really loud, longwinded, heartbroken kitten.’

     After two tries, Keith had snapped and swept it out of the crib. Once in his arms, it curled into his chest and fell back asleep.

     Hunk rubbed his eyes; Allura rubbed her ears.

     Keith shrugged, “Alright. It’s pretty clear that the kiddo doesn’t want to be alone. It’s fine, I can just hold them while they sleep.”

     “Ooh can I hold them?” Pidge asked, “I don’t really know anything about babies, but I can definitely hold a sleeping one. No problem.”

     Keith looked somewhat reluctant, but started holding the baby out to Pidge. It started whimpering when it lost contact with the warmth of Keith’s chest but didn’t seem to wake up.

     “Whoa!” Pidge’s eyes grew wide and she threw up her hands as if to block her face. She froze in that position for three whole ticks and then deflated. “Can I just… sit first, or something?”

     “Never held a baby before?” Lance teased.

     Pidge’s face turned pink, “well excuse _me_ for being the youngest in my family. I guess I really _should_ have telepathically downloaded ‘baby memories’ from Matt. What an _oversight_ on my part. Sorry guys, maybe next time.” She bit out.

     “It’s fine.” Shiro said, “It’s a good opportunity to learn.”

     Pidge sat down on one of the recessed couches in the sitting room. Keith sat beside her and began coaching her in baby holding, offering advices like “support the neck C—Kiddo seems to have it figured out, but better safe than sorry” and “yes I know they are so fluffy and soft, no I do not know if I was like that when I was an infant.”

     The rest of them filed onto the other couches, silently watching the exchange.

     It was Hunk who broke the silence. “So. We found a baby. Now what?”

     “Well, we can’t exactly keep it.” Allura reasoned.

     “Awwwww, why not?” Lance pouted.

     “Lance.” Pidge stared at him over her glasses, but didn’t risk moving a muscle lest she woke the baby. “Have you noticed what we’ve been doing with our lives? We pilot five lions and a fighter-castle, we’re almost constantly in active combat, and there’s _seven_ of us. It’s literally always all-hands-on-deck. We _objectively_ don’t have the physical ability to take care of a baby long-term. And don’t forget that whole _active combat_ thing. Chances are that if we keep them we’ll put them in more danger than we can protect them from.”

     Lance deflated, “you’re right… but that puts us back at square one. What do we do?”

     “Well… I don’t know if I want to suggest it…” Hunk said, “But uh… the Galra Empire probably has _something_ in place to handle orphans? I mean, I don’t like the Empire one bit, but if there’s already a stable system in place why not use that to our advantage?”

     “I don’t really like it either,” Shiro admitted, “but you might be right, Hunk.”

     “One problem though; how? We’re not exactly buddy-buddy with the empire.” Lance pointed out, “We can’t just fly over to some enemy ship, say ‘hey take this baby’ and not expect… bad things. So what else? During a fight with a robeast? Break into another base and leave them there? They’d be no better off than if we’d never found them in the first place!”

     Shiro sighed, “Also fair.”

     That was when the baby woke up. Pidge let out a surprised “oh! Good morning, small thing!” as it struggled to push itself into a more upright position. Pidge looked intensely uncomfortable. Allura could relate.

     “Here, I gotcha.” Keith pulled the baby off of a relieved Pidge and onto his lap. He propped it up on his thighs and started jiggling his legs, “hey there C. How’ve you been? Sleep well?”

     “Hkwekwekwekwe” the baby laughed at its own vibrating voice.

     “Well uh,” Coran seemed to pull his attention from Keith chatting with the baby, “that might not be true? We could visit another swap moon, no firefights and no contact with anyone who would recognize us necessary.”

     “Swap moon? You mean the space mall?” Hunk asked, “Yeah that might work.”

     “Yeah, we could walk around, ask every Galra we see if they ‘ _recognize this baby?’_ ” Lance took on a frantic-sounding voice, “’ _We found them lying on a bench outside!’_   We find some authoritative-looking person, spin a tale about how _‘we waited to see if an adult came back for them but no one did and we were worried they would hurt themselves’_ pass the lil’ bean off on them and run for it.”

     Keith’s legs stilled, “No.”

     “Keith—” Lance started.

     “No!”

     “We—”

     “We’re not just abandoning them! You know how messed up that is? To take a kid who trusts you and say ‘ _wait here, I’ll be back later’_ and never come back?!”

     “That’s not really what we were…” Lance trailed off.

     “Keith’s right.” Shiro interrupted, “Let’s shelve that plan for now and try to come up with something we like a bit better.”

     “Besides,” Keith frowned, “I don’t like the idea of them growing up thinking we’re the enemy.”

     Apparently dissatisfied in Keith’s new lack of jiggling, the baby turned its attention to Shiro beside him. It grabbed at his metal arm. Shiro obliged the baby, letting it pull his hand over to its mouth. It started chewing on his fingers.

     “Shiro?” Allura glanced back and forth between the baby and Shiro.

     “It’s fine. They’ve got nothing on my nephew; he was an absolute fiend when he started teething. Besides, those fingers are pretty durable.” Shiro clicked his knuckles against his metal forearm.

     “Do you think they’re hungry? I mean, they’re probably hungry.” Hunk said, “We only found them like, what? Two, three hours ago? But who knows when the last time they’d eaten before that was? Oh no, what do we feed them? Coran, do you know what baby Galra eat?”

     “Not a problem, Hunk” Coran soothed as he stood up, “we can go whip something up in half a tick.”

     “Alright, yeah, ok,” Hunk took a deep breath, following Coran out to the kitchen, “we can do that.”

     Pidge watched them leave with a shrewd look on her face, “That raises another problem. We need to figure out what to do with them long-term, yeah. But we also need to figure out how to handle them short-term.”

     Allura sighed, “It seems we do. I would wish we could find a permanent solution so we didn’t have to, but that may not be possible.”

     “Well, I’ll be glad to help out wherever I can.” Lance offered.

     “Thanks Lance,” Shiro smiled, “maybe we should stall this conversation until Coran and Hunk get back though.”

     They passed the time in silence, besides the baby making small grunting noises as it tried to chew through Shiro’s fingers.

     His hand was absolutely covered in its slobber. It took everything Allura had to suppress a shudder.

     Coran and Hunk returned with a bowl of food goo that was slightly bluer than usual. Pidge scooted aside to let Hunk sit down beside Keith, opposite Shiro.

     “Yoinks,” he said, pulling the baby off Keith’s lap, onto his own, “heya lil’ fluffball. You want some food? I’ve got some… goo? I’ve definitely got some sort of goo. I bet it’s edible too.” He spooned a bit into its mouth, occasionally glancing around the rest of the group, “so what did I miss?”

     “We acknowledged that we need to consider short term solutions as well as long term ones,” Pidge replied, “not much else.”

     “We take care of them. Easy.” Hunk said, expertly using the spoon to wipe bits of goo off the baby’s chin and back into its mouth.

     Allura wasn’t sure how to respond.

     “Well… long-term solutions-wise, I think our problem is that, between you two being in cryosleep for the past ten thousand and the rest of us being from a ‘backwater planet,’ we’re pretty out of touch with the modern galaxy, and we don’t know many people—or any people really—that we can ask to take a baby.” Shiro said, “We should contact the Blades of Marmora.”

     “But they’re in the same situation we are!” Allura protested, “Besides, they wouldn’t take the baby regardless.”

     All five paladins stared at her, uncomprehending.

     “First of all, what makes you say that?” Shiro finally asked.

     “No one wants to raise a child they have no connection to.”

     The room was dead silent, until it erupted.

     “What?! What the hell?!” Lance shouted, “They’re a _baby_!”

     “Yes, well, I’ll admit, you paladins are quite the outliers in this regard.” Coran mused, “Most species would only have the instincts or impulse to care for their own child or the child of a relative or close friend. There’s a few cases where the familiarity might stretch to any member of their own species. Honestly, I don’t understand your attachment to this youngster.”

     “So what, I was supposed to just leave them alone in that crib?” Hunk looked disgusted.

     “Of course not!” Allura choked, “Abandoning the defenseless is blatantly against the paladin code!”

     “Oh so it’s just the code then?” Pidge sneered, “No sincerity, no compassion, just your own pretension to uphold?”

     “No!”

     Lance stood, trembling in rage, “I want to go home.”

     No one replied. No one dared to breathe.

     “Did you hear me? I want to go home right now.”

     Hunk wiped the last bit of goo off the baby’s chin and stood, passing it to lance as if it were some peace offering. “Lance you can’t just quit Voltron—”

     Lance took the baby and rested it against his shoulder, patting its back, but when he turned back to the group his eyes were still blazing, and when he spoke his voice was cold.

     “I'm not quitting. Don’t you think for one frigging second that I am quitting. I'm regrouping. I want to go home, and I want to grab my family, because apparently I'm about to end up raising a bunch of children who—“ he spat out the next words “— _have no connection to me_ , and I think I might need a little back up.”

     The baby let out a huge burp for its tiny body. Lance paused to shift it onto his hip.

     He turned on the Alteans, seething as though he hadn’t paused at all, “So I need you to turn this ship towards a particular little blue planet. It’s probably a long trip but I don’t care. We’re gonna go there. We’re gonna pick up my family and probably a few others. It’s probably gonna be ridiculously complicated, and I have no freaking clue how it’s gonna work out, but it’s what we’re going to do, because if what you’re saying is true? And there’s no one else in the galaxy who’s gonna say it? Then this baby is mine. This baby is _mine_ and I'm going to protect them, and I'm going to love them, and I'm going to raise them.”

     Allura had no response to that. Looking to her side, Coran was similarly gobsmacked.

     “I…” she stuttered, “I suppose—”

     “Let’s try the Blades of Marmora first.” Shiro soothed, “My original point was to ask the Blades—who have been around a bit longer than us—if they know anywhere that would take the baby. If nothing else, they can tell us what sorts of things Galra children need.”

     Shiro was remarkably unshaken by Lance’s outburst. Even the other paladins were staring silently at him. Allura was relieved to have his calm, reasonable voice on her side. She wasn’t cruel, and she certainly didn’t want anything bad to happen to the baby, but she simply had no interest in raising it herself. She was glad Shiro understood.

     Shiro turned on her, voice clinical, “But if what you said is true… my parents are old enough that I don’t know if adventuring in space would be safe for them, and I have no idea if my sister would be willing to uproot the twins and come, but I’d still love to see them all again.”

     Ah.

 

 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

**Bonus Ending Dialogue**

 

     “Don’t forget your cat” Keith interjected.

     “Of course I'm not forgetting my cat! What kind of person do you take me for?” Shiro feigned offense.

     “Good. Because I babysat Fluffy for two months before you were declared dead and I can guarantee she hasn’t forgotten you.

     Shiro had a small, genuine smile, “of course she didn’t. What happened to Lor—“

     “ _Fluffy_.” Keith stated, “Was taken in by your parents. Your sister offered but they decided that she probably wouldn’t get along with the kids.”

     “Well her name _is_ —”

     “Fluffy. Her name is _Fluffy_.” Keith almost growled, “Her. Name. Is. Fluffy.”

     “Now Keith, _you_ said—and I quote—“

     Keith tried to interrupt again, but Shiro spoke over him in a decent mimic of Keith’s voice.

     “ _Seriously Shiro,_ Fluffy _? That’s objectively the most cliché cat name that even exists! Can you physically get any less imaginative?_ ”

     Keith glared and responded in a blatant mockery of Shiro’s voice. “ _You’re right Keith! I think I_ will _name her something a bit more creative! You know what’s super cute? Cats with titles! You know what’s super creative? Literally just naming her after the person I got her from!_ It’s not a good name Shiro!”

     “Ok first of all, I absolutely did not name her after him—“

     “Only because you decided on something worse!”

     “—Second of all, Commander Holt would have been _honored_.”

     “Wait!” Pidge interrupted, “You’re talking about Lordmaster Flufflegrumps? Keith, _you_ named Lordmaster Flufflegrumps?

     “No!” Keith yelled at the same time as Shiro’s “Yes!”

     “No.” Keith insisted, “Shiro named Lordmaster Flufflegrumps, and Lordmaster Flufflegrumps is why Shiro is not allowed to name _anything ever_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some headcanons
> 
> 1: ok so it takes a lot of love and patience to decide to devote yourself to the lifelong wellbeing of a needy, emotionally and physically immature other (so thanks @Mom). So here's a hypothesis; maybe it's common to just… not, unless one has personal stakes involved. This is one of my darker ideas tbh, but it was interesting to pursue. Basically, Allura's line "No one wants to raise a child they have no connection to" sure adoption is a thing (after all, Allura considers Coran like a second father to her) but generally it's more of a "I loved my now-dead friend dearly, I will honor their memory by loving their child as they did" deal than a "look at this child. They need help/love. I will help/love them."  
> 2: that's is a pretty average sentiment, but decidedly not universal; some places tend more towards either extreme (0% pro-adoption or 100% pro-adoption). There's a solid chance it's more cultural than like, biological disposition but idk. Furthermore it probably depends fairly on the person; there's plenty of humans who won't even raise their own children, much less someone else's. And for that matter, there's plenty of humans that would raise every child in the world with love (if they were physically able)  
> 3: it's pretty reasonable, I think, that this might be Allura's (and maybe even Coran's) first interaction with someone expressing a different position on the concept of adoption. For all that they are diplomats… this isn't exactly the sort of thing you talk all about over diplomatic brunch. Like "now, before we sign treaties and make friends, tell me: what's your opinion on taking in random children and raising them as your own?" nah, probably not something that ever came up in enough detail to warrant a discussion.  
> 4: who's good with kids/babies?  
> 4A: Coran is excellent with all of the above. He had three children and one grandkid. His youngest was born when Allura was a bit younger, and his grandchild was born shortly before the fall of Altea (and did not live long). His jubilant personality and gentle steadiness makes him a hit with kids.  
> 4B: Allura… no. she may or might not try to get along with a youngster, but she'll always be uncomfortable and will make the kid uncomfortable and she doesn't know what she's doing and kids are kind of sticky and it's just… not her cup of tea. She's not cruel or anything, children just don't take to her and she doesn't take to them.  
> 4C: Shiro is an uncle, to twins no less. Being the cool uncle who lives on the other side of the world and occasionally goes to space is basically the extent of his experience with kids, but kids love him anyways. Babies are chill with him, but older kids, who know who he is and what he's done, love him the most.  
> 4D: BONUS Matt has a little sister, they get along real well, but he's kind of a little shit. Kids who know him personally love him, but he might be a bit much for kids who don't know him. Don't leave him unsupervised with a child, he'll be a horrible influence.  
> 4E: Keith. Keith was a foster child, he has a lot of experience with children. He prefers to deal with younger children over older children, but he remembers childhood being hard so he's not about to be mean to any child (people his own age or adults are fair game though). He's pretty good at reading kids; 'this one wants to play' 'this one wants quiet' 'this one wants to be held' etc.  
> 4F: Pidge was the baby of the family, she has 0% experience with younger children, and--considering she's an introvert who def. skipped a couple grades--only like 13% experience with kids her own age. Babies truly are like heinous loaves of bread to her. It's really the kitten thing that draws her to the Galra baby. She can handle them when they're sleeping, but when they wake up she'll have no idea what to do.  
> 4G: Lance is actually an only child. He does, however, have an entire army of cousins, and claims first babysitting rights for all of his younger cousins and cousin-nibblings. He has a love in his heart for kids of all ages, and they recognize that quickly.  
> 4H: Hunk. Loveable marshmallow sunshine child. There is not a being in the galaxy incapable of loving Hunk, and children are particularly susceptible.  
> 5: Shiro has a cat. He named her fluffy. Keith critiqued Shiro’s naming skills. Shiro got revenge. Shiro has a cat. He named her Lordmaster Flufflegrumps. Keith critiques Shiro's naming skills. Shiro lives out his revenge.

**Author's Note:**

> So, a few headcanons
> 
> 1: generally, a race will exclusively find their own offspring cute. Kind of like the 'no one thinks their baby is the ugly one' thing, but species-wide. Alteans might find human babies alright bc of the basic similarities, but the lack of eye markings and crazy shapeshifting would really be off-putting. That particular phenomenon where like 50% of people think babies are cute, but 100% awwwww at puppies and kittens? That's weird as hell.  
> 2: crazy/uncontrolled shapeshifting is a sign of youth/immaturity on Altea. Only infants and small children will start flashing colors like a cuttlefish. There's a lot of really fun games that involve wild shapeshifting. Once Alteans grow into some dignity they always miss playing them but never go back to it. It’s sad.  
> 3: Ok so you know how human babies, developmentally, would really benefit from another month or two in the womb but if they did then they would be too big to fit through mom's pelvis and the mother would die (so would the baby, most likely). Well. Altean shapeshifting. Altean gestation period is crazy long from our perspective even though development pace is decently analogous. When it's Time For Infant, the infant-carrier just shifts their hips to an appropriate size and wow no problem. Because of this, Altean babies are born much more independent than humans (not completely independent, but still), and infanthood is much shorter. Alteans would consider 100% of human babies to be premature.  
> 4: on the flip-side, Galra do not have shapeshifting, but do have skinny little tiny hips. Galra gestational periods are much, much shorter and babies develop a bit differently from humans; they form vital organs and such quickly, but don't do a whole lot of visible growing (and they form most of their non-vital stuff after birth). You might not even know a Galra was pregnant until they introduce you to their newborn. The babies come out as soon as possible and as consequence are tiny (like, fit into the palm of their parent's hand small) and incredibly dependent on their parents. Kind of like marsupials, but I don’t really hc Galra as having pouches.  
> 5: litters? yeah? nah? idk. it's an option, but i'm pretty neutral to it. if yes, then kiddo is the least favorite of the litter and thus left behind, if nah, then parentals were just kind of bad.  
> 6: once born, Galra babies grow at a lightning pace; they've got about 7 feet to go before they're adult-sized. They put on about a foot in their first year (during which it's pretty standard for their parents to hold them just about constantly. This baby is approximately 3-month-old-human-baby sized, which puts us at about a third to half of the way into that first Galran year. They've very recently finished forming and have probably only just opened their eyes. Even if they weren't abandoned intentionally, the fact that their parents left them alone enough to forget about them is fucked up to an extent that the Voltron crew doesn't even realize)  
> 7: on that topic, the fuckiness might be exclusive to this kids parents, or it might be because of a universal cultural shift, Thanks Zarkon. Being left alone during such a vulnerable age would likely leave most—if not all—modern Galra severely emotionally stunted, which might suit Zarkon just fine.  
> 8: Coran, Coran the Family Man! Haha git rekt @ my emotions


End file.
